Mystery Ink

A small town newspaper experiment has blossomed into rave reviews for Mystery Ink, a short story anthology published by Ginger Press of Owen Sound in mid-June.

"We have the perfect little summer short story collection," writes Margaret Cannon, The Globe and Mail’s premier mystery critic. "No well-ordered Ontario (or elsewhere) cottage should be without Mystery Ink."

From Hamilton, Don Graves wrote in The Spectator: "Mystery Ink is masterful writing in miniature form; gems in three to five thousand word settings ... a summer must."

Edward L. (Eddie) Greenspan, one of Canada best known criminal lawyers, set the stage in his Foreword for Mystery Ink: "You will enjoy these well-written stories by Ontarians."

Most of the 18 stories were originally published in a summer fiction series in the Osprey Media newspaper. The series was co-founded by two of the writers, Jake Doherty of Meaford and Therese Greenwood of Kingston. Many of Ontario’s top mystery writers are included in the series, now in its fifth season.

"We had no idea when we started how long the series would last," said Doherty. "And we are certainly delighted about the success of the anthology. It’s like the Maple Leafs winning the Stanley Cup."

Greenwood agrees: "Osprey took a neat idea and turned it over to a summer market of about 500,000 readers each week for six weeks. To the best of our knowledge, we’re one of a kind." Each story is set in a town or city where Osprey has a newspaper.

Ginger Press publisher Maryann Thomas is just as enthusiastic about the success of the Mystery Ink book: "We’re into our second printing already; orders have been arriving from across the country for this little treasure from southern Ontario."